Baptised in the Holy Spirit!

Monday night was AWESOME! i went to Strike, which is the Macleod Salvo bible study and we were baptised in the Holy Spirit. my definition of being baptised in the Holy Spirit would be when you once again confess all your sin to God and ask the Holy Spirit to come into you, once again, and renew his presence in your life and body.

I think that we can focus a lot on God the father and Jesus the son but kind of forget about God's Holy Spirit, which is the part of God that lives inside of you and brings about your spiritual gifts and fruits of the spirit. for a complete relationship with God we need the whole Trinity to be active in our lives.

back to monday night, i'm just too excited! lol. when we started i was kind of nervous and i could feel that my heart was slightly closed to God. but then we did this awesome activity where we wrote down all of our unforgiven sin on a balloon and then prayed that God would forgive us and popped the balloons. i got a shock every time someone popped a balloon! lol.

i volunteered to go first and it was strange. me and Sarah were standing in the middle of the circle and every1 was praying over us. At first i felt like there was something stopping the Holy Spirit from entering me and realised that i still had a bit of doubt in my heart and so i prayed that God would get rid of this doubt and enter me. after a while of praying i felt this slight presence pushing me back. it wasn't strong but it was enough to make me start to lean back. it kept on pushing and i tried to stop myself from going backwards. it got to the point where i just fell down and got on my knees and started praising God. HE IS SOOOOOOO GOOD!

while i was there, on the ground lol, a friend told me that they could see the Holy Spirit surrounding me like a tornado and someone else said that they saw God and the angels welcoming me into their family and celebrating. to know that God was welcoming me into his family was wonderful, as my own family has started to grow closer emotionally but is growing more distant physically each day as some of my family members are moving houses and states.

one of the main things that i was praying for that night was that this wouldn't just last that night, that i wouldn't just experience the Holy Spirit and then tuck him away in a corner and go about my everyday life, but that i would continue to live for him and that he would give me the strength that i couldn't find in myself. the next day, which was yesterday, tuesday, was pretty cool! i spent the day fasting, praising God, praying out loud and in silence and reading the bible pretty much all day!

one bible passage i read was were Jesus went into the desert for 40 days and fasted. 40 DAYS! what! i was completely wrecked after just one day of fasting but Jesus did it for 40! man he was definitely relying wholley on God. God didn't just call me to fast but he also helped me to stay away from the television and computer all day and even give up going near my fone for a few hours! i know God was with me giving me strength because i actually survived not talking for a whole hour, twice during the day, which i have never been able to do before. if you know me you'll know how VERY VERY HORRIBLY PAINFUL it is for me to stay quiet! but God does work in mysterious ways! lol.

this is a massive blog and i have so much more to talk about but i will leave it here. lol. just wanted to add that God has been doing some amazing things in my life, like getting non-christian friends to WANT to come to church! yay! GOD IS SOOOOOO GOOD AND GREAT AND WONDERFUL AND DON'T YOU EVER FORGET IT! yours in Christ, alana;P